U.S. President George W. Bush has said that Liberia might be chosen to a new location of U.S. military command for Africa, local mass media reported Friday.
"If there is going to be a physical presence on the continent of Africa in the forms of a headquarters ... obviously we would seriously consider Liberia," Bush said in an interview with foreign media on Thursday and released on Friday.
The U.S. attention to Africa has been growing in recently years amid concerns that some African countries could become safe havens for militants seeking to base operations and plan attacks on the United States.
"Africom is a brand new concept aimed at strengthening nations' capacities to deal with trafficking or terror, but also to help nations develop forces capable of doing the peacekeeping that unfortunately too often is needed on the continent," Bush said.
Liberia went through a 14-year civil war that claimed an estimated 270,000 lives until warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor went into exile in 2003.
The United States is now in good relations with Liberia headed by woman President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. In February 2007, Washington canceled all 391 million U.S. dollars of the bilateral debt owed by war-ravaged Liberia.
Bush ordered to establish Africom in February 2007. Except for Liberia, major powers in Africa, like South Africa, Nigeria and Algeria have refused to host Africom.
Currently, the United States has some 1,700 troops in Djibouti.
Source:Xinhua
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